How to generate website traffic

Having a good website is one thing, but getting people to use it can be quite something else. Web users have literally millions of sites they can visit, so why would they visit your website? The only sure way to be sure of getting people to visit your website is to draw them there.

The objective of building more website traffic is to generate brand familiarity and preference by creating an emotional association with your website. Brand familiarity will make the customer more likely to associate your product or service with your company, and thus either contact you or buy your product.

There are three main methods to generating ongoing traffic to your website. In order of importance:

1. Changing Content

There is no reason for a potential customer to come back if there’s no new information. Changing content is key. New articles, company information, product or service information, images, pdfs, you name it. As long as it’s relevant to your business, put it up there! But what if nothing’s changed? What if your company just does the same thing over and over and over?

Offer advice! You’re experts! Find other tidbits of information on the web and publish them. Source or commission stories relevant to your sector. Tell your clients you’re considering a new coat of paint in your office. Whatever! At least clients will know there’s a face behind the website.

Websites can be cold and intimidating things. They’re a bunch of electrons sitting there doing nothing (well almost nothing). When people visit a website, they like to know there’s people behind the website. Let them know!

This is especially relevant on the ‘home page’ – the first page they land when they type in your domain name (e.g.: www.websupportguy.com). As a general rule, if something interesting changes on your website every few days, people feel more comfortable that there is a ‘people presence’ behind the website.

2. Email newsletters

Whether it is a simple email from Outlook, telling relevant people of an update to your website, or professional HTML newsletters linking back to specific articles, actively letting people know there is new content on your website shows you are interested in keeping your customer base informed of the latest news, and that you are a progressive company with information to share.

3. Have references to your website address everywhere

Your business cards, your ‘with comp’ slips, your email signatures, your company vehicles, delivery trucks, brochures, your office building or store, everywhere. Promote your website address in big bold letters, then user a Web Content Management System (WCMS) to easily control and create a website as you see fit.

Drive traffic to your website by being proud of it, rather than some three-year-old-embarrassment that some friend of a friend created as a favour and now not only doesn’t represent your business in the correct way, but would actual deter people.

Make your website something to be proud of, then scream from the rooftops its location – make it the flagship of your marketing and promotions, because changing it instantly is free and easy.